Jodi Picoult: Doing

“Beliefs are the roads we take to our dreams. Believe you can do something-or believe you can't-and you'll be right everytime.”

“Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it.”

“If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?”

“You don't need water to feel like you're drowning, do you?”

“Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least.”

“I don't think we get a choice in who we fall for," Ian whispers. "I think we just do.”

“Do you know how sometimes - when you are riding your bike and you start skidding across sand, or when you miss a step and start tumbling down the stairs - you have those long, long seconds to know that you are going to be hurt, and badly?”

“You know someone's right for you when the things they don'tto say are even more important than the things they do.”

“There are some things we do because we convince ourselves it would be better for everyone involved. We tell ourselves that it's the right thing to do, the altruistic thing to do. It's far easier than telling ourselves the truth.”

“Whether or not you believe in Fate comes down to one thing: who do you blame when something goes wrong.”

“Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.”

“Anxiety's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you very far.”

“I've always sort of wondered: If everyone else's opinion is what matters, then do you ever really have one of your own?”

“People ask all the time how I'm doing, but the truth is, they don't really want to know.”

“You don't have to say I love you to say I love you," you said with a shrug. "All you have to do is say my name and I know."

…"Can't you hear it?" you said. "When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.”

“When you care more if someone else lives than you do about yourself- is that what [love is]?”

“It is a remarkable question- Do all the wonderful things happen when we are not aware of them?”

“Maybe you expected marriage to be perfect - I guess that's where you and I are different. See, I thought it would be all about making mistakes, but doing it with someone who's there to remind you what you learned along the way.”

“Doing the right thing for someone else occasionally means doing something that feels wrong to you.”